abcnovels
Chapter 39 - Penalty Introduction
Chapter 39 - Penalty Introduction
Ping!
It was midnight, and Rino's daily quest was updated. The lich checked it lazily now that there was nothing much to do apart from wait for the cement to dry.
===
Daily Quest #6
Objective: Create the following Farming Tools
1. Rake
2. Hoe
3. Shovel
Time Limit: 24 Hours
Tutorial here.
Reward: Potato Seeds.
Claim your reward here.
Penalty: Deduct 2 hours of sleep per 24 hours delay.
===
When he saw the reward, Rino paused. Were the Gods actually giving him an item? At the same time, he was speechless when he saw that they finally became serious about the penalty section. For some reason, Rino wanted to see what they would do to him if he had zero sleep hours accumulated but still refused to turn the quest in.
First, they wanted him to be a builder. Now, they wanted him to be a farmer. Was this really building a kingdom? The ex court magician felt insulted that they thought he would do this back-breaking work of farming by himself. He was a magician, and physical labour was his nemesis!
Seeing that it was still dark, Rino sighed. He really did not want to start on this tedious quest after he knew what the Gods wanted him to do. Agriculture wasn't his area of expertise without magic, and there were very few things magic could do when it came to ploughing the fields and growing plants. Unlike building a house, Rino could not hasten the growth process of plants. This was a routine thing that only happened with consistency.
Rino was the least consistent existence in any universe. He and agriculture would be a terrible match. All the plants would never make it past a seedling if Rino was their caretaker unless they were grown using nature magic. In that case, those plants would not be fit for consumption.
"What if I left the actual farming to my minions?" Rino wondered.
Among the forty-something goblins he enslaved with his shadow, there should at least be one or two useful people. Goblins might not be the best farmers or hunters, but anyone would do a better job than Rino.
This time, he wasn't going to make that same mistake of summoning every single slave he had. Mutt wasn't going to be much use now, so Rino looked at his shadows. He might need more than one set of farming tools if he were hiring free labour to tend to the fields. He only hoped that he could receive more than just one miserable packet of seeds for each farming tool set he made.
Ark nodded in agreement and updated the daily quest system. For the first time since Rino's arrival into the new world, he received a repeatable quest.
Ping!
Rino checked his tab once more and was pleasantly surprised to see a new tab and system message.
[System has updated. Kindly visit the Repeatable Quest tab to check your daily turn in limit and rewards.]
===
Repeatable Quest #1
Objective: Create the following Farming Tools
1. Rake
2. Hoe
3. Shovel
Cooldown: 8 Hours
Tutorial here.
Reward: 100 Potato Seeds
===
Rino looked at the number of seeds he could claim from crafting one set of farming tools and nodded. He wondered if wooden tools would suffice. They might not be as sturdy or lasting as metal tools, but he did not have many options. Making bone tools would simply be too painful and barbaric of a process. He was too low on mana to ensure complete survival if he ripped his spine out.
Thankfully, Rino was able to save enough mana to gather more hemp trees to restock his storage. There weren't enough tree sap either for glue and, most certainly, not enough strong fibre to hold everything together. There were so many places he had to be, and Rino wondered if his slaves could be more useful than waiting in his shadows to be called upon.
"Why don't the rest of you start thinking about your painful past and depressing thoughts?" he suggested.
Mutt, his most loyal slave, replied positively and started reminiscing his hatred for human hunters. Rino shared the memories from his connection with his most loyal slave and shuddered. The pain was so raw and strong that Rino thought it was his imagination when the shadow beneath his mantle grew.
The goblins recalled the painful war against this stupid wolf, and Rino confirmed that it was not an optical illusion. The shadow beneath his cape was growing stronger, darker and bigger. At the same time, their despair only served to fuel his magical powers. They recovered a fraction of what Rino managed to do for hours in just a few minutes, and the lich felt his jaw drop.
He was so stunned at the efficiency of this portable mana battery that he had the lower jaw bone start to regenerate before he could pick the fallen half up. With so much mana recovering, Rino threw all caution to the wind.
For the first set of farming tools, it might be better to go for quality instead of quantity. He would make the tools heads out of bones. It was probably stronger than rock if he fashioned it out of his thigh bone.
Once again, the Gods were speechless at Rino's strange determination. Why did this lich not read the tutorial? They would not fault him for using wood or stone even if bone was stronger. Besides, didn't he want to use his shadow summons to farm on his behalf? Was there a real need to use such good materials?
It was too late. Rino was already inciting the despair and grief of his shadow slaves while pulling out leg after leg. He did not know what else he would use the other bones in his detached legs for, but he would have plenty of good bones left after this.
Ace cringed when he saw Rino rip both legs out the moment his thigh bone was fully regenerated. The lich was too impatient and high on mana that pain no longer bothered him. If anything, he was determined to use this self-torture as a method to refuel his depleted mana supply.
As crazy as it sounded, Ark thought that this was the exact kind of person they needed in the small world. Rino knew just how to stir up changes. Maybe the punishment system wasn't really necessary. All they needed to do was give Rino really good incentives to go all out to witness major progress.
"We should get him to build a temple and turn in some of the things he makes for rewards," Phil suggested. "These tools, if people ignored the material, would be better than anything else anyone in the small world has attempted to make. Those who have harder soils might need them because metals of this small world rust easily."
Ark agreed. However, he doubted that Rino would build them a temple. If anything, the lich would do it if the system allowed a sacrificial offering in exchange for sleep hours.